After being humbled in two failed attempts at an IPO last year, Wired Ventures Inc. has announced that it has finally received US$21.5 million in equity financing from institutional investors.
The company did not release the names of the investors or the terms of the financing.
The company put itself on the computer-related publishing map three years ago with its namesake magazine, 'Wired', which offers a mix of cutting-edge graphics, profiles of industry figures, feature articles and marquee-name columnists. The company has expanded to offer a Web site, HotWired Network, and a book publishing arm, HardWired Inc. It is also developing television programming through its subsidiary Wired Television Inc.
As a result of the funding, Wired is positioned to carry out the next stage of its business plan, according to a company statement. In the statement, the company portrayed itself as successfully growing, stating that Internet traffic to the HotWired Network sites is up 53% from the third to the fourth quarter; Wired magazine's circulation base has increased 13% in the last year to 340,000; and ad pages for the first two issues of 1997 are up 15% from the January and February issues last year.
However, the company failed to attract enough investors to launch an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and become a publicly held company last year, despite two attempts.
Wired is at http://www.wired.com/
